Extra Coin Preview: Escapism

If you like big, bold and vibrant blocky pixels, you’ve come to the right place with Extra Coin. Part of The Big Adventure Event on Steam, the demo alludes to a potentially exciting open-world experience.

Read Ready Player One/seen the movie/heard others talk about it? Forget that Meta tosh, and look into this title that’s coming out later this year, as it’s effectively the same set-up of living an alternative, virtual life.

Mika doesn’t want to follow that path and instead lives a ‘normal’ life with her grandpa. Her parents aren’t on the scene as they’ve permanently moved into the virtual world – at least, that’s how I interpreted it, but when her grandpa passes, she decides to explore the world out of curiosity.

Whatever her reservations, they soon evaporate into a meaningless thought as an alternate reality: The Arcade is so much more than she could anticipate. She chooses her username, then promptly turns her into the avatar used in the game. Venturing into the wild, it soon becomes overwhelming, and she returns to reality.

Extra Coin has heaps of potential. In one brief introduction to The Arcade, the AI mentions customisations – that is, earning in-game currency to customise their apartment and avatar. Still, there’s also a screen that shows some stats. What will Extra Coin have in store for us? Other than the stats screen, it’s not shown, so this could be something big.

As for the gameplay experience, it was a little on the minimalistic side, but that allowed for digesting the story. It’s pretty bittersweet, juxtaposed with some adorable visuals. I’m more of a dog person than a cat, but seeing her relationship with her pet when she needed it most was touching.

Yeah, CINIC Games/TTT Studio’s title caught my eye, and I’d be interested in seeing where the story will take us. There’s no release date for Extra Coin just yet, but y’know… wishlist it for the updates.